[silverwillow]

Just curious on what others' experiences were as far as needing to use GIP for management of acute symptoms/caregiver breakdown? How long in? Any trouble placing patients?

[doodlemom]

Originally Posted by silverwillow

Just curious on what others' experiences were as far as needing to use GIP for management of acute symptoms/caregiver breakdown? How long in? Any trouble placing patients?

Are you talking about using the hospital for GIP or an inpatient care facility? We use our ICF for sx mgmt and caregiver breakdown. If a pt is not insured then we have problems placing them - it's definitely a problem. We have pt's in several contracted hospitals that have been referred to us for acute needs and we have admitted them GIP there because either they do not want to go to the ICF or they are not insured. We have had to limit the amount of uninsured pt's that we take from the hospital (we still do take many.) We were finding that the hospitals were dumping all of their uninsured pt's on us and breaking us financially. I'd be interested in knowing what other hospices are doing in this instance.

[aimeee]

If its just caregiver breakdown and there are symptoms to manage/actively dying we usually utilize continuous care. If its strictly a caregiver being temporarily unavailable we would utilize the respite level of care at one of the ECF's we are contracted with. We only have 2 facilities that we have a GIP contract with and do this very rarely. Its hard to find facilities that can GUARANTEE always having an RN in house. Because of that, we usually end of managing acute symptom problems with continuous care as well.

[silverwillow]

Originally Posted by doodlemom

Are you talking about using the hospital for GIP or an inpatient care facility? We use our ICF for sx mgmt and caregiver breakdown. If a pt is not insured then we have problems placing them - it's definitely a problem. We have pt's in several contracted hospitals that have been referred to us for acute needs and we have admitted them GIP there because either they do not want to go to the ICF or they are not insured. We have had to limit the amount of uninsured pt's that we take from the hospital (we still do take many.) We were finding that the hospitals were dumping all of their uninsured pt's on us and breaking us financially. I'd be interested in knowing what other hospices are doing in this instance.

I just had my first GIP. It was a hard case. Caregiver breakdown (complete) and acute management of symptoms. She had hospital GIP. It lasted a few days and I'm still exhausted. I hope I don't get another one for a long time.

[earle58]

Originally Posted by silverwillow

I just had my first GIP. It was a hard case. Caregiver breakdown (complete) and acute management of symptoms. She had hospital GIP. It lasted a few days and I'm still exhausted. I hope I don't get another one for a long time.

sorry but i'm sure you will silver. i work in an icf and it is no picnic; not to say hospice is fun but in hh at least it can be rewarding. i swear half of my pts are receiving the gip benefit, or should be.

leslie

[aimeee]

Silverwillow, that sounds like it really drained you. Be kind to yourself and replenish your spirit. (hug)

[silverwillow]

Originally Posted by aimeee

Silverwillow, that sounds like it really drained you. Be kind to yourself and replenish your spirit. (hug)

Thanks for the support everyone, it helps. At least I have the weekend to recover.
It was a 3-4 day stay. Not sure if that is normal. Lots of work trying to chart it all since our agency has one method and the hospital another.